KISS: Keep It Simple & Servicable.

You’ve likely inherited an existing system with a pump failure or a zone controller that isn’t playing nice. Maybe a boiler that had seen better days. Are you adding a new zone to an existing system? You may be dealing with something you’ve never seen before. Failed products that aren’t available anymore. A system expansion that seems impractical.

Sometimes ya just need a second set of eyes to figure out what is going on and put a plan together. If you have a tough project, consider involving us as partners early. No, we will not be doing the fittings or wiring, but there is plenty we can do with respect to engineering AND product selection.

This isn’t our first rodeo as they say. We’ve been in HVAC, specifically the hydronic heating space, for over 30 years. Long enough to know things and have seen a lot – good and bad. As you’d expect, we get called in to help with the bad – some which are just bad, some are rather creative shall we say. We have relationships with all the major manufacturers, distributors, and suppliers. We are authorized, certified, and trained with a variety of boilers, pumps, manifolds, zone controllers, mixers, and plenty of accessories. Buffer tanks, low loss headers, hydraulic separation, lots of controllers, and digital from simple WiFi to BMS integration.

Consider too how you are protecting the system itself – that means self-regulating water supply/pressure, water quality and ph treatment – including antifreeze, magnetic dirt separators, automatic air bleeds, and more. Can you avoid operating problems by protecting the boiler and components? Sure can: many future failures can be avoided with some insight and planning today.

Consulting  –  Onsite Design  –  Troubleshooting – Product

Rads, baseboard, air handlers, or in-floor, we can improve your heat.

Late 1800’s, cast iron radiators represented a major leap forward in home heating. Normally accompanied by a massive boiler (asbestos covered to boot) it was fine when coal and oil were cheap. Today, if your rads remain, over time several contractors have had a go at your boiler, manifolds, pumps, and maybe even zone controllers. We understand how the original, gravity-fed system worked and how to combine new technology to provide more heat at a likely lower cost.

We get hot water baseboard heaters too. Boy have they changed recently. Talk to us and let us show you some of the incredible changes. Some of the new baseboard offerings are almost works of art.

Tearing it all out and running forced air ducts is rarely the right solution.

Many love the feel of in-floor hot water heating. Did you know that some homes have hot water heating in the walls or ceiling? We’ve added hot-water heating around showers, behind mirrors so they don’t steam up, and around soaker tubs. Even one where lines were run under a water bed to help keep it warm (cheaper to operate than the electric heater). Like any heating system, in-floor systems can be done well or not so well. If not so well, the very last resort should be to tear the floor up to rerun the tubes – we can likely help you avoid that. We’ve built (and fixed) in-floor systems for 20 years.

We regularly follow up with homeowners to ensure positive outcomes and tuning. You live there, you know how things are working, day to day, month to month, season to season.

Problem Diagnosis & Inspections  –  Contractor Referrals  –  Products

Reliable heat with predictable operating costs.

With industrial and commercial hot water heating systems it is all about “uptime”. And of course, operating cost predictability. In the case of commercial and residential high-rise, reducing the NOI is the greatest benefit. Greenhouses, office buildings, manufacturing, apartments, hot water processing, pool/spa heating, shops, and more: you generate revenue and need hot water, usually in massive quantities. Reliable hot water/heat helps drive the revenue.

New or refurbish builds must include the ability to isolate and have failover for key components. Electronic notification of failure or better yet, pending failure. As always, meet the latest building codes and inspections. What about reducing your insurance and liability by adding snow/ice melt systems? Usually a simple addition to a well designed hydronic system.

We bring practical insight to the table. Often we will have been involved with a particular technology or project that seems quite different from your situation but would have an innovative application in your project. Maybe you just want to be proactive and have a plan for gradual system renovation and improvement. Planning is always a good ROI.

You likely have a stable of contractors – is one of them a hydronics engineer with 30 years of experience? Maybe we can help with a specific project or on an ongoing basis. Or put you in touch with some of the best we’ve worked with. The lowest cost usually doesn’t translate to the best value – we’ll focus on long term value.

Design  –  Refurbish  –  Contractor Referrals  –  Products

Current, Discontinued, and sometimes Pre-Release parts.

A worst-case situation story: you are on a no-heat call and the issue is one of the plug-in relays inside a zone controller. The zone controller is old but has been working fine up till now. Doing a Google search, you just found out that model was discontinued a couple of years ago, and no, there isn’t any apparent stock of the relay. We’ve all been there. Call us. If we don’t have it, we may know someone who does.

We are NOT a distributor of parts or equipment ourselves, let’s be clear on that. However, we know and talk with those who are, daily.

Usually, doing maintenance, renovation, or expansion, there should be an interest in improving the system efficiency – what is the latest technology and will it work here? Is there a good reason to change “brands” – will it be a direct fit? For new projects (or complete rebuilds) what does the latest technology look like? How has it changed? Would it be a good fit? Just because equipment has a 95% efficiency rating doesn’t mean it will run like that in your situation. Components need to be matched, integrated, and configured to achieve the best possible system efficiency. That is combustion AND heat efficiency.

Product questions we hear weekly: What products are Internet/WiFi/Bluetooth enabled and will work with in-home automation and my phone? Does this include outdoor sensors? Internet-based predictive temperature curves for the day? Mobile phone notifications and control?

Finding the right products, that will work in your situation, in your timeline, at a fair price is tough. We may be able to help given the people we are talking to regularly. Maybe we can find ya that discontinued relay. We know people, who know people, who know people.

Product Sourcing  –  Manufacturers  –  Distributors  –  Local Suppliers

Learning is a life-long skill. So is selling.

Your focus is delivering reliable heating systems – if you don’t set aside some time (for yourself or your staff) to get insight on new technologies how will you stay competitive? You are just wasting your time and the customer’s money to put a smart pump on a poorly structured zoning system trying to reuse a vintage gravity manifold.

We train, coach, mentor – individuals, company techs, and public groups. It can be with people onsite (hands-on) or classroom (classroom can be in person or online). Jeff House personally does all the training – so you’ll learn from one of the best. Classes can focus on specific brands, specific components, hydronics 101 (the basics), or a particular need you have. The public schedule (anyone can sign up) will be posted over in House Calls.

We attend training ourselves regularly. We work hard to keep up with leading-edge technologies and applications and innovations in historical system architecture

Here is another thought. You likely find yourself writing proposals or more often “selling” your service and solutions weekly. We can help with how you do that. Often organizing a few basics “sales pitches” will result in better customer understanding of the (often subtle) complexities of heating with hot water vs the benefits. That traditionally results in more sales. And more loyal customers since you took the time to ensure they understood. Loyal customers tell others.

For personal or company training or support, contact us with your interest and needs here. We have trained wholesalers, manufacturers, technicians, installers, designers, reps, and even homeowners who like to be hands-on (you know who you are!).

Training  –  Sales Support  –  Seminars  –  Marketing Support

You have questions. We have answers or can find them.

This is where we post the myriad of questions that Jefcom gets. Anything hydronic from tools to equipment to “How the heck do I” is fair game. To submit a question, use the Contact form here.

Found yourself being asked to service some antique or recent mess? Send us your system picture for our gallery: here are the ones we have so far:

The Latest Cries for Help…

Reusing stuff isn’t always the cheapest solution.

Q Replacing a failed oil boiler with a new high-efficiency gas one. Single zone, all cast iron rads. Has an outlet manifold and separate return manifold – both heavy steel from the dawn of time. No pumps (other than the boiler pump). Is there a way to plumb this for this season (quickly) without tearing it all out and putting in a new manifold(s)?

A I hear ya about needing something quickly at the beginning of the heating season and not having the luxury of tearing out manifolds and being without heat over a couple of days. You seem to realize (correctly) that those manifolds are far from ideal with the new boiler.

I’ll presume the heat travels more or less ok (gravity fed) from the outlet manifold and returns ok too. So, yes, connect the new boiler to the existing manifolds. However, be clear with the homeowner this is a temporary fix. You may want to include some additional equipment now, to spread the cost out to the homeowner (and be clear you are doing that). From your pictures, I can see these aren’t on the current system: air separator, solids separator, in-line thermometers, pressure tank, various isolating shutoffs.

It would be useful information in the spring if the homeowner could take the temperature of the various rooms with rads several times over the winter. That will be useful information in the spring to identify any runs that on their own don’t get enough flow (cool rooms). It is rare as techs that we have this info, but it is very enlightening when it is possible to get it. Keeps ya in touch with the customer too.

Keep in touch. Jeff.

Yes, some still use oil.

Q “Jeff, can you help me? I have been trying to set up the boiler you sold me, and it can’t be done. My techs have been there a dozen times, I have been there three times myself. My customer wants me to yank it out and put in a new one. Help!”

A I needed eyes on the situation. After driving seven hours, I met the frustrated service manager and a very irate homeowner. I listened to both tell their stories, took a close look, and listened as more of the symptoms and details came out. The burner wouldn’t burn clean so there was soot all over the house with the occasional odour of oil. I went from fitting to fitting on the supply side, and the third one had a very slight leak. Looked at a few more things and measured the insertion depth of the burner tube into the fire chamber. It was 2 ½” just like the burner manufacturer recommended the service manager noted. I agreed and then turned to the manual from the boiler manufacture: they wanted a 4 1/8” insertion. It was a new high-efficiency boiler, and it required a different insertion depth.

So, the valve was changed, burner set up properly, and the contractor bought me dinner before I spent the next seven hours driving home. I have sold them products and consulted for many years since.

Don’t just take our word for it.

(A note from Jeff: I enjoy what I do. I enjoy the people I work with and our customers. Thank you all for your support and wonderful friendship.)

We don’t always agree, but we solve problems.

I have been in the hydronics business for 30+ years. Working in sales at the manufacturers level, manufacturers representative, and Product Manager for hydronics at the wholesale distribution level. I visit many problem installations and jobs: some days I think I’ve seen it all, only to be surprised. When I get stumped, and I do, collaborating with Jeff House results in a solution that meets the customer’s needs. We don’t always agree, but at the end of the day, the result is a happy customer along with a solid reference leading to more business.

GP, Skky Radiant Products, Toronto, ON

Jeff’s thirst for learning is impressive and unusual.

When I met Jeff, I was very green in the hydronics industry.  After years of in-class teaching, job site visits, and (likely) hundreds of hours of phone calls, Jeff has provided me with a great understanding of what makes a solid hydronic solution. From heat loss to pipe and component piping to mechanical room layouts, Jeff’s knowledge makes him an expert in our industry. He has helped with any hot water heating problem I have ever had!

SM, National Energy Equipment Inc., Mississauga, ON

Don’t worry, we’ll work it out.

Jeff House has been a pillar of strength and support in my life for over 35 years. Having called on Jeff in times of need he would calmly say “Don’t worry we’ll work it out” relieving any stress, anxiety, and helplessness I was going through. He is a friend and is an important part of my industry’s inner circle. I am fortunate.

He is as honest as the day is long and I know that he will leave a memorable footprint wherever his work takes him.

TV, Trent Lakes

You’ve had four maybe five different contractors working on this?

This was my first time with a boiler, I had already spent thousands trying to have our 1910-built house even close to warm in the winter. Jeff was referred to me, had just arrived, and was having a look around the utility room. I was quite surprised at his comment about the number of contractors I’d engaged so far. I replied, “Yes, five. Everyone assured me they could make it work. None did.” All I could add was: “How do you know that?” Seems each contractor had done what they “knew” – their universal fix. Jeff showed me how each in isolation was good work: problem was, none of them knew hydronic systems. He appreciated my price sensitivity, made some initial changes and over the following years further improvements. My house is warm and my heating bill is a fraction of what it was. I have instant hot water too! Over 10 years later, Jeff still checks in now and then.

GV, Homeowner, Paris, ON

A great resource for proposals.

I have collaborated with Jeff on many projects over the years. His knowledge and experience have been a valuable resource, and we continue to work together to propose hydronic solutions. Thanks Jeff!

VB, Next Plumbing and Hydronic Supply, GTA/Toronto, ON.

I thought I knew hydronics.

I would never have grasped the depth of what is possible in the field of hydronics if I had not met Jeff. I started providing service and retrofit of HVAC systems and thought I knew hydronics. That was until I attended Jeff’s Basics of Hydronics course – 15 years ago. Since then Jeff has been my “guy” for design ideas, equipment selection, and manufacturer support.

Send us a pix of what you find.

So, here is the deal. We want the website to be interesting and interesting means great content – and a bit of fun. So, use the Contact page to send in your odd find (please send two pictures of the same system taken at slightly different angles). Our very strong preference is that you take a selfie in front of the system you are sharing – hey, we’d like to meet ya. Photo shy, well, include your helper. No helper today, ok, send what ya got.

We’ll pick and choose and post pictures: we’ll be sure to let ya know if we post yours. The most curious ones, we’ll get in touch with ya and get some info about the project, how it turned out, some “after” pix, and write up your project on our blog House Calls. We’ll also link to your site to help your Internet search results (seems that is how it works).

The fine print. We reserve the right to use/post or not pictures that are sent in. By sending in a picture you certify that you have taken this picture and it is not some random picture you found on the Internet (and is likely copyright protected). We may award swag now and then, based on our own opinion. We will not use the picture elsewhere (other than the Rogue’s Gallery) without your permission. The intent for the subject matter of the picture is some part of a system you are working on that is odd.

Send them in. We know you’ve got em’. If we end up posting a pix of something you once upon a time worked on, well, all in good fun.